{scraps of jacki's life}

april and twelve-of-twelve, and flowers for you!

oh dear! it has happened again. i was almost finished with a post, and was editing it, and it disappeared! gone! lost! swallowed up by cyberspace!

of course this is never my fault. it is the fault of the internet/computer/sins i committed in a previous life/the spirit of Christmases past.

i am going to take a deep breath, make some coffee, answer some emails, and then come back to try again.

so, please pop in again for the lastest episode of 'what's up at SCRAPPIN TIMES scrapbooking supplies store in benoni, south africa, and the life of jacki janse van rensburg'. such a catchy title, innit? heaven forbid you should miss a minute...

ok, let's try this again.

it is april. april is always an emotional month for me.

first comes the 12th of april. it is tian's birthday. he is turning 8. Happy birthday, tian!

also on the 12th is twelve-of-twelve day.

'Throughout the day - you'll shoot pictures.  Most of you will shoot a lot of pictures.  Any picture, any place, anyone, any pit-stop, any errand, anything you do, anything you eat, anything you see, anyone you visit.  You decide...no real, hardfast rules!  Just keep taking pictures.

BUT - as an aside - I always try to get one self portrait (in a mirror, as a reflection, at arm's length) and one picture that shows the weather or outside temperature (which in Arizona is likely to be 85° on the 12th)

I usually take pictures from when my alarm goes off in the morning, until when my pajamas go on at night.  Then, upload your pictures (pour yourself a glass of wine, it helps!) and start editing.  Which means deleting.  Come on - just do it!  You want TWELVE PICTURES that you feel best represent your day.  What you did, who you saw and what you accomplished...or what you didn't quite complete!

Get those twelve pictures printed out at home, or upload them to your fave off-site printing facility and get them ordered!  Because on the 13th...WE SCRAP!'

tonight i'm going to sleep with my camera next to my bed. i will show you what i did next week. as tomorrow (the 12th) is my 3rd anniversary of the day i stated this little journey called scrapbooking, i am going to commemorate the day this way.

then, on the 14th it would have been my ronnie's 45th birthday. and on the 19th of april it is 6 years since he died.

every year i am surprised at how difficult and draining this week always is. i always think i'm going to be ok, but when the day comes, it is more emotional than i expected. that first year, and all the firsts, you expect to be heartbreaking. but when 6 years have passed, you think it would have become easier. when the anniversary day comes, i find myself reliving the events as they occured that day when he died in a aeroplane crash. you can also read what i wrote before about this here. i suppose it is something one carries with you forever, and rightly so. although i have moved on, ronnie was a very important part of my life for more than 16 years!

also, it is at this time of year i am reminded once again of how GOD is the only real comfort. and i can say from personal experience that 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me'. psalm 23:4.

and, since i always like to add a photo to each post, i thought i would share these photos of 'cosmos', wild autumn flowers that grow everywhere next to the road. they are particularly beautiful this year as a result of the very wet summer we have had. these are for you, wilna, elsa, carla, janine and anyone else who is living elsewhere in the world, and is missing these.

   

 

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES

scrapbooking tutorial - how to make a shakerbox

  
stephanie, one of our clients, attended a class by liza recently, and she made the round shakerbox we use in these photos.

you can put anything in a shakerbox, but, as you can tell from the name, it will move around inside the 'box'. so, use beads, small embellishments, sand, coins, keys. i even used my son's baby teeth!

  

a shakerbox can have any shape. stephanie made a round one. you need a base - it will be visible so use something that goes with your theme, a piece of transparency, and something for the top 'frame'. also, you need some foamcore or foamtape to raise the top part. ink, paint and distress as you want. you can tie a ribbon around the top frame.

cut the foamcore, if you are using this, in the desired shape. this lifts the 2 layers, creating a 'pocket' between them. ink too, if desired.

 
turn the top 'frame' upside down. place the transparency down over it. stick it down properly. remember when sticking a shakerbox together, do not leave any gaps at all, as the contents of the box can slip through the gap. if you are making a box to contain fine beads and sand, be extra careful to stick every little millimetre down.

using the foam tape or foamcore, stick this to the upside down frame, hiding it behind the frame so you cannot see it from above through the transparency. trim till neat. remember, the transparency comes between the frame and the foam.

place the base down, arrange the contents on top, and place the raised frame over it. don't stick yet. check that it is raised enough for the contents to move around freely inside. if it is too low, add more foam, if it fits, ink the sides of the foam to make it blend into your colour scheme, and stick it down properly, once again checking that there are no gaps.

pick up the box, and shake it about, checking that nothing slips out. then use it where you want it.

remember, you are making the whole shakerbox seperately first, before you stick it onto your layout. if something goes wrong, you can re-do it, until you are happy. so relax and experiment!

 
the 'scrappin times' shakerbox was made by liza. she used a sizzex machine to cut out the letters from cardstock, and then used the negative to make the shakerbox.

if you are unsure of anything, contact me, and i will gladly help you.

you can find another example of a shakerbox here. and here.

you can find other scrapbooking, papercraft and photoshop tutorials here.

 
jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES

this post was linked to by: scrapscene

happy birthday, mamma!

today is my mom's birthday.

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

hope you have a wonderful day, and a blessed year!

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES

time and about magazine

time & about magazine has just increased their quality and credibility. why? because they published one of my layouts, that's why! you see, i've been published once, and it has already gone to my head...

this is really exciting!

 

the man hates to be photographed. and he is never really that interested in my scrapbooking. on saturday, we went to the hobby expo, and while we were there i popped it to time & about's stand, to pick up my shop's issues of this magazine. and when i showed him this page, he winced. but, on the way home, i asked him to stop off at the shop so i could put the magazines on the shelf for monday. he asked me to please take one home, so he could show sean. and on sunday, when his dad came for tea, he showed him. o, so now that it's published you are interested... his only regret is that he is not the centerfold!

here is a closer look at what appeared in time & about magazine, issue #7:

 

 

i converted these photos to black and white, and printed them on textured paper to create a canvas look. did i mention how much i love this amazing guy?

now, please pop in to the shop, and get this excellent magazine, before my mother and his mother buy them all...

jacki janse van rensburg - SCRAPPIN TIMES

your father would have been so proud...

It'll be a great day when education gets all the money it wants and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy bombers.  ~Author unknown, quoted in You Said a Mouthful, Ronald D. Fuchs, ed.

 

last night francois got his Baccalaureus Artium (BA) degree in Politics and Economics.

he is doing his honors degree in economics this year. i am proud of you!

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver.  Then they would really be educated.  ~Al McGuire

jomien

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

Anne is my very dear friend, and has been for years. our children grew up as friends. she has lots of kids, i have 2. jomien is one of her daughters, she is the same age as francois. she is a gorgeous 22 year old student, with beautiful red hair and sympathetic eyes and the soul of an artist. i love, love, love this child. this girl often visited me and spent hours in my home, and in my car. {and in my heart}. she is the daughter i don't have.

i found these photos of her, and decided to scrap them. she was about 12 years old here.

besides the white treasures for the background, and the pink cardstock that i mounted the photos with, i used only scraps. everything was stuff in my stash. i cut the squares of paper, folded them in quarters, and inked the folds. then opened them up again and stuck them down.

this layout is a total scraplift. i found it in this brilliant and inspiring book - 'scrapbooks to cards'.

also, wilna has thrown out a plea, that you can read about on her blog. she wants lots and lots and lots of people from all over the world to make and mail her friend, lois, a card.

she says: I have a friend, Lois. She is 40 years old and have cancer. She is in pain and needs positive, uplifting people to remind her continually to live and that life is worth living. She has an amazing husband and four beautiful kids. The doctors are not giving her long to live, but I believe that God is the author of life. And I know you believe that too. If you want to be entered into this awesome draw (and if anyone want to contribute prizes, big or small, please email me) then this is what you are going to do: take 10 minutes of your time and create a card for Lois. A card that speaks of life and laughter, of fun and flowers. A word of encouragement, maybe your favorite scripture. Take a picture of it and upload it for all to see. Then you post it to her. I visit her every day and I will make a list of all the cards she gets and I will let her draw names out of a hat for winners. The deadline for all the cards to reach her in Canada is March 20th. So, if you want to play (and I hope every single person that reads this will) make her a card, and post it. THAT's how simple it will be. visit wilna's blog for more info. annette and ineke, how about it? we can make a card for an actual person for a change, instead of just making them for the sake of making them...

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES / scrappintimes

A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend.  ~Author Unknown

paula

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.  ~Author Unknown

this is my sister, paula. she doesn't live far, about 20 minutes drive away, but we don't see each other as much as we would like, because of our busy lives.

this is a very nice photo of her. i made this layout as an entry in a contest, at ittybittyscrapshack. alas, i fell out, but it is a very nice website to visit to look at some great, high quality layouts.

there were rules to this challenge. it had to be a single page layout. this is quite difficult for me, as i almost only do double pages. the we had to use the following: 2x patterned papers, 1x cardstock, buttons, alphabet letters and handwritten journaling. that's it. no inking, no stamping, no paint, no flowers, no ribbon, nothing else! i found this very difficult! but you must see what some of the people did. wow! click on 'round 1 entries' to see. i used daisy d's paper, colormates, and thickers letters. and old buttons.

liza decided yesterday to move the shop around. drastically! this was quite some work, but i must say, it looks good. very different, which is a good thing. everything looks new. there is even a corner for a gallery. this is besides the gallery we already have in the toilet... thanks liza and linda for your great ideas and hard work. it makes a nice change!

love, jacki

SCRAPPINTIMES / scrappintimes

reflective thursday

let's try this again...

iv'e been finding a lot of gems online today, so i thought i would share some of the e-nspiration with you today.

on kelly rae roberts's blog i found this great quote: "The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, 'If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.' Now I say, "I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me." (Jim Rohn). kelly rae is one of my favourite blogs to visit. she is an awesome artist, but she also writes so beautifully. she manages to share so much of herself, puts her heart in it, and makes me want to reach out and hug her when i read her posts. she is an inspiration to me, i strive to be the kind of soulful blogger she is. she constantly tries to grow and be a better person, and her art and her blog are a part of that journey. and, even if you visit her blog just to see her art, you have already made a trip worthwhile.

jody is such an inspiring person! as i get to know more about her and her life, by reading some of her older blogposts, i see that GOD has blessed her by giving her the ability to find meaning and growth in even the most painful and terrible situations. and He has given her the ability to inspire countless people through her difficult journey. i love the way that she can show that although they miss teagan, and they are sad for wyndham, they are also happy, and blessed, and fulfilled. she has lived one of probably every person's worst nightmares, and she shows us that ordinary families can survive this - sometimes barely - through the strength that GOD gives us every day. i pray for them.

i'm saving this after each paragraph's edits now. it's slow, but at least i'm starting to get somewhere...

as most of you know, i lost my husband, ronnie, almost 6 years ago. 6 years is a long time, and i have made a good life, with a very wonderful man, since then. sometimes people get upset when they see me having moved on. they want to see more grieving. but, one can grieve and be happy at the same time. and just because they don't see the pain all the time, it doesn't mean it is not there. it is, and it makes the happiness all the better, because i know now how special that happiness is. i have learned to appreciate the small things. i know i have to cherish the moments, and i do, all the time!

mostly these days, i find myself often missing the now-things. i wonder what he would have thought about our son's life, what he would have been doing today, what success he would have achieved in his career, what he would have thought about my business venture, etc. the 'if-he-was-here-now' things. especially with francois' milestones. as he is getting his degree soon, i will be facing that empty spot in my heart once again. i know he would have been so proud of what his son is achieving, and the beautiful, intelligent, witty, deep thinking young man he is becoming. i miss the conversations we would have been having about all this. {{sigh}}

save...

on a lighter note: on 8 march you can join the champagne roadshow in johannesburg. tickets cost R1100. this is for a full day, 4 scrapbooking classes. leah fung is one of the teachers. it is going to be a must-attend day. just the products you receive alone are worth R2050! check out the details here. come on, book now, and then let me know when you have booked. you will regret it if you don't!

then, on wilna's blog, i found a link to this layout. isn't it a great idea? i'm gonna do that one soon!

speaking of wilna: iv'e finished my first valentines project. i really enjoyed it, and thought it alone was worth the +/- R119 i spent on the class fee. and there are 3 more projects to do! thanks doll, for all the hard work you put into making it totally worthwhile!

now i have to upload the photos again... let's hope...

that took ages! save...

oops! operation timed out. have to try again. frustration levels spiking, but determined to get this finished, so it's done!

because this book will be on dispaly in my shop for a while, i am not writing on the tags yet. it is meant to be a love letter. i did find 2 beautiful love poems here.

phew! almost finished...

thank you for your comments and emails. i have been getting lots of hits on my blog lately, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and excited inside.

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

eduard sparrius, and the crying game

Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.  ~Antoine Rivarol

i cry. i am one of those people who cry. about anything. when the couple run in slow motion across the beach in a cigarette advert, i cry. when someone else in the room cries, i cry. every friday night when i watch extreme home makeover, i cry. one year, toyota invited ronnie and myself to sun city. they had this huge do in the superbowl. there were dancers with lit torches, and music and smoke, and with great drama and fanfare they flipped the lightswitch, and launched a brand new toyota truck. the tears were streaming down my cheeks...

Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it.  ~Albert Smith

shortly after ronnie died, i went on an antidepressant. this stopped me from crying. it was good, at the time. but when i was ready to go off the tablets, it was a relief to be able to cry again.

so, i cry. if you love me, you would accept that, right? when i am stressed, i cry a lot. i read somewhere that tears excrete some of the adrenaline in your system, and relieve some of the stress. unfortunately, mike hates it when i cry. he probably doesn't know how to deal with my tears. either that, or it's the fact that my face goes all red and blotchy and ugly that puts him off. he says he can't talk to me when i put on the waterworks. i can't talk without putting on the waterworks. so, you can see the problem? just when i need his support the most, just when i need a hug the most, he gets annoyed with me, and walks away. fortunately i get the hugs and support later.

What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.  ~Jewish Proverb

what is the point of all this? how should i know? i just work here!

this week i have been extra blessed! besides the usual, daily blessings, we got 2 breaks that are answers to our prayers. so, lots of thankfulness in my heart at the moment. GOD does look after us. i am just too impatient..

here is a page i scrapped this weekend. eduard sparrius was my grandfather.

i used scenic route paper, 'laurel sail maker lane' and 'cape town devonport', and scenic route alphas. the tape measures are from 7 gypsies, and the tabs  from heidi swapp. i didn't do much else. no embellishments, or anything. the paper was so beautiful, that i felt it didn't need much else. the little girl in some of the photos is my mother. unfortunately, as today was a grey, cloudy day i had to use a flash, and it reflects in the photos, making them difficult to see.

these are the 'matching' cards i made with the scraps:

i have been working on my project from wilna's amazing valentines class. last night i was all unpacked and ready to work, when the power went off. the man thought i was insane when i scrapped by the light of the battery camping latern. even after the power came back on, i scrapped till 2am. the things we do for this craft... this project is not finished yet, but here is a sneak peek:

i'm tellin ya, it's going to be a great valentine's month, thanks to wilna!

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

anika

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

isn't this sooo adorable? these are my sister paula's kids. ok, theo, your kids too. anika, carli and tian. it was anika and tian's first day of grade 1! they go to different schools, anika is in a girls school. isn't the blazer cute? and check out the gap in the teeth!

the layout below is of anika. one weekend away we asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up. the title of the page is: 'anika, wat wil jy eendag word?' - anika, what do you want to be someday? she answered 'a butterfly!' at my cousin mariska's wedding anika and marni were the flowergirls, and they dressed up with the wings. so, i thought i would use those photos to show her what she would look like when her dream comes true.

this page is busy, and the title is difficult to read, and nothing is really straight or symmetrical, but i love it! i think it is because of anika's beauty and attitude, that really comes through. you go girl, you already are a gorgeous butterfly!

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

francois

Don't wait to make your son a great man - make him a great boy.  ~Author Unknown

 

this is still one of my favourite layouts. when francois was about 11 years old, his father and i took him fishing. it is not easy to see, but one of the photos shows evidence of the fact that he caught 2 fish at the same time! what a proud moment! the bottom left tag can open, and there is journaling inside. the word 'fishing' was stamped on cardstock with bleach. the edges of the page i dry-brushed with paint. the fab-scraps rub-on on one of the tags reads "give a boy a fish, and you can feed him for a day. teach a boy to fish, and you can get rid of him for a weekend".

now francois is 21 years old. he went back to university this week. his classes start next week. he is doing his honors in economics this year.  in a while i will have graduation photos to scrap, as he is getting his degree soon. his father would have been so proud! he lives on the campus in student village. these are like flats on the campus. great, everything is in walking distance. only senior students stay there. he was home for almost 3 months, so i am missing him like crazy! {{sob!}} but, the contents of my fridge and grocery cupboard are staying constant now, and the laundry basket is no longer overflowing...

Son, you outgrew my lap, but never my heart.  ~Author Unknown

i am always looking out for quotes to put on my blog. last week i read something like: 'if you are not happy with what you've got, you won't be happy with what you get'. when i read it, i did not take much notice. but, it has been popping into my mind all the time. it really is something to think about. in this day and age, in this consumerist, disposable society, we always seem to want more, newer, better, faster, more expensive. maybe we should stop and think for a moment, and be happy with what we've got!

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

carla

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.  ~Linda Sunshine

this is the layout i made of my sister, carla. she is my baby sister, 7 years younger than i. paula and andre are in between. carla lives in australia, so we all miss her terribly! she is a gypsey, and travels the world. she has dreadlocks and peircings. she has tons of style and an artistic soul. she is sweet and gentle and wise and beautiful! {{hugs}} now that i have scrapped her, and see the layout in the shop every day, i miss her even more! i love you, sis!

i used colormates deep mostly mauve, bazzill pale gold, black cardstock, 7 gypsies requiem paper, bazzill blossoms, chipboard alphas, buttons and tapemeasure from my stash, and sisters stickers and the tag are from 7gypsies. i stamped on the flowers. i used dimensional glaze on the alphas.

if you scroll down a bit, you will see the card i made from the left-overs of this page. i made the card before i packed my stuff away.

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.  ~Toni Morrison

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

count our blessings

i visited donna downey's blog today, followed a link, and stumbled into something so scary and wonderful and inspiring and saddening. i just have to share this.

read the story of teagan here. this family was happy and normal the one minute, and devastated the next. i warn you, it will bring tears to your eyes! so, wait until you have a quiet time to read it. but whatever you do, don't miss it!

then, experience the growth, and strength, and daily struggle and sadness that jody, her mother, experiences. and then join me in counting our blessings!

reading all this reminded me of a poem that brought me much comfort in the dark days after ronnie's death. it is by Mary Hathaway

So i shall feel the waves:

"when you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. when you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. when you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up, the flame will not consume you" Isiah 43:2

So i shall feel the waves

and hear the storm,

the waters will sometimes cover me,

the currents will pull at my feet,

i shall be afraid for my life,

but -

i shall not drown.

So i shall feel the heat,

i shall be scorched,

i shall be burned,

and despair of my life,

but -

the flames will not consume me.

YOU do not promise a life

full of frothy joy,

YOU promise LIFE -

in all it's fullness,

with it's pain and suffering

as well as it's love and joy.

YOU are real, LORD,

YOU are true, LORD,

and I rest in YOUR word

in my despair and confusion

in the sure knowledge

that i shall come through.

this woman's poetry is awesome.

and then i want to end with this that i wrote in 2005, almost 3 years after ronnie's death:

what i have learned:

1. THINGS happen.

2. BAD THINGS happen to good people.

3. almost all people can survive BAD THINGS, even when the think they can't.

4. many people can lean and grow and flourish and be happy after BAD THINGS, in spite of BAD THINGS, or even because of BAD THINGS.

5. you see things in perspective: when little, every day THINGS happen, you are grateful that it's not BAD THINGS, and you deal with it.

6. i know now that i can deal with BAD THINGS. it is terrible and difficult and painful, but it is survivable.

7. i hope that if BAD THINGS ever happen to this good person again, i can deal with it as positively as before.

8. you never have to deal with BAD THINGS alone. every good person has many people beside her to pray and comfort and help shovel all the BAD THINGS.

9. you cannot choose what happens to you. but you can choose how you react to what happens to you. you can CHOOSE to grow and learn and be happy.

10. all things in life are possible and bearable and positive, through GOD, who gives us strength.

to all the jody's out there: i can imagine (a little) how you are hurting, but i cannot change those feelings; i can speak the words, but i cannot comfort you; i can hug you, but i cannot fill the emptiness. but i can pray for you, and HE can.

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

our family

You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.  ~Desmond Tutu

this layout i scraplifted from a layout i saw on annette's blog, posted january 16, 08, under the title of 'jen wilson sale'.

the photos are of my family. i used colormates, pattern paper from K&Co, 7Gypsies and Making Memories. the metal flowers i bought loose ages ago, and the brads are cha ching brads from bazzill. i used a stamp to make the stems. the hearts are of cardstock, with Making Memories heart tag rims.

see how you can take an idea, and make it your own. and scraplifting is ok, as long as you give credit to the one you got the idea from. thank you, annette!

Family:  A social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space.  ~Evan Esar

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

vegetables again

in general, my children refuse to eat anything that hasn't danced on television. Erma Brombeck.

you know how sometimes you scrap a page, and the whole process, from beginning to end, is just a pleasure? it doesn't happen that often, but i just love how this one came out!

i used treasures and colormates cardstock, and the patterned paper, rub ons and embellishments are from karen forster. the flowers are from prima.

the wooden letters i bought loose at a shop, and painted with heidi swapp paint. i used a white gel pen to make the stitch effect. i love the little rub on snails!

on the little tag with the vegetables on it, tucked behind the photo,  i will write the story, as on the blog entry of early january. anyone interested in reading it, can pull it out.

as always, the photos don't do justice to the real thing. but this page will be one of my favourites for quite some time!

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

GROW!

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers.  ~Edgar W. Howe

so, it's all over again! all the planning, shopping, cooking, preparing, fighting, cleaning... now it's checking the kid's school kit, getting ready for back-to-school. sean is going to grade 6, and francois is starting his honors in economics.

i see on lots of the blogs i read, that many of the american girls like to have themes for the year. so, i'm not really a new year's resolution person, but i liked the idea of a theme. i gave it some thought. first i thought of 'create'. i know it's not really original, but i do want to make 2008 a year of creating more. i like wilna's idea of 'simplify/amplify', where she wants to simplify her life, and amplify what's important to her. i sure need more simplification. donna's theme for 2007 was 'inspire'. i think it is quite a honor if people were to see me as inspiring, so i'd like to make that a mission.

but, i have settled on 'grow!' it can be growth in so many ways:

i want to grow my creativity. i want to scrap more, and create more in other ways too.

i need to grow in simplicity. i need to de-clutter my life even more. this will go a long way in decreasing some of the stress in my life.

i wish to grow my inspiration. i will try to inspire others by sharing my passions, ideas and talents. i will also continue to seek out people who are positive, passionate and inspiring to me.

i have to to grow my shop. i need to get more customers, grow in turnover and in numbers of customers.

i will continue to grow spiritually. i know that GOD has a plan for my life, and for 2008, and i want to feel HIM at work in and through me.

i hope to grow the blog, both in the quality of the content, and in readership. i want to work on writing with the poetry and vulnerability of kelly rae roberts. i want to be as passionate as donna. i want to be as inspiring as wilna. i want to share ideas as freely as leah. i want to be as chatty as heidi. i want to be as disciplined as annette. and i want to be inspiring, and funny, and generous, as all the other blogs i visit regularly. and i hope more of my visitors will comment. hint, hint!

i strive to grow as a mother. i love francois and sean, and they need me to be the best mother i can be. they are the blessings in my life, and i need to show them this.

i love to grow as a supporting, happy, loving partner for mike, who is the most amazing man, and the best friend and supportive partner a girl could ever want, and who makes me happier than i ever thought possible.

i dream to grow as a friend.  there are so many wonderful people in my life, who are the sunbeams that brighten my days, the supports that help me carry the load, the fertilizer that help me grow. i need to love them more, to hug them tighter, to phone/sms them often, compliment them every time, and thank them constantly for their unwavering love.

i try to grow in positivity. in south africa today there is sooo much negativity! i will try to have and spread more hope, more love, more passion, more friendliness.

well, this is some mouthful. for someone who thought she had no new year's resolutions, i did waffle on quite a bit... and see, no mention anywhere of any diet, exercise, cleaner house or harder work! what are your resolutions/themes/thoughts? i really want to know.

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

plot life, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.  ~Oprah Winfrey

it is such a pleasure to live on a plot! yesterday afternoon my parents and my brother and his family came to visit, and we picked lots of fresh vegetables for them to take home.

little marni helped me so happily! she helped pick beans, gem squash, spinach, beetroot, onions and carrots. she also helped carry it all to the plastic tub.

when she saw what they were getting to take home, she jumped up and down, and said: "jaaay, we're getting food!". don't you feed your kids, boet? afterwards, she was quite happy to pose like a little supermodel! thanks, marni, for changing a chore into a happy memory. you made my day!

now, if this is not a good advert for healthier eating, i don't know what is..

what are you doing for new year? we are going to our neighbours, jannie and amelia. no roadblocks on the way home..

so, to all of you, happy new year! may 2008 bring many happy memories!

love, jacki

you can see the layout i scrapped with these photos here.

2008 calendar

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

we have been making these calendars as gifts. they stand on your desk, and if you are in an office and your desk faces the door, then the nice side faces you as you come in, and the functional side is towards you when you work. if you wish, you could take the calendar part off and replace it with a 2009 calendar next year.

the above examples were made by ineke, liza and laetitia. the kits are from wilpro, and we cannot keep up with the stock, they sell as fast as i can get them! next year i'll have to get lots more!

love, jacki

SCRAPPIN TIMES

marni

Wow, look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if you knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. Calvin and Hobbes

how's that for a life philosophy!

i always wonder what to say in my blog posts, and what not. yesterday's post about stress came from the heart. if you know me longer than one hour, you will know that i strongly believe in GOD, and i m not ashamed about it. but, this blog is under the name of my shop, so i have to take that into consideration. everything i say and do here, not only reflects on me personally, but also on SCRAPPIN TIMES. if it had been my own blog under my name, i would even be more free about talking about my life and beliefs. but this also functions as the website of the shop, so it should also be professional. please comment, and tell me how you feel about this.

i do try to alternate my blog posts between personal ramblings and pictures of layouts and shop activities. i hope that that will go some way towards satisfying most people's expectations. and on that note, here is the page layout i finished last weekend. marni is my brother's daughter.

the dark brown treasures papers that i used for the background, i crumpled and scrunched. then i opened them up and wet them, and then ironed them flat. don't tell the man that i know how to use an iron...then i attacked them with my heidi swapp paper distresser that i got from her at the 2005 scrapbook convention. this little toy makes the edges of paper rough and uneven. i wanted the edges to be a little torn and very rough. it is difficult to see this on the photo. i glued them on white card stock, to show up the rough edges better.

the frame of the photo on the left was easy. i tore pattern paper into little strips, inked the edges, and folded them around the edges of the photo, stapling each one down before adding the next. the other photos i sanded the edges and mounted them on the pink, also distressing the edges. on the right page i tore strips of the pattern paper and inked them, and stapled them to the background paper. the tags i made and decorated individually. the rub-ons are 'flourishes' from making memories. the letters that say 'marni' are ghost alphas from heidi swapp, that i dry-brushed with a little pink paint for definition.

anyone who doesn't know my scrapping style, will think i scrap in pink often, after visiting this blog. it is just a coincidence: having 2 boys, i seldom get an opportunity to scrap in pink.

also, this page was a little out of my comfort zone. i am one of those people who measures everything, and needs everything to be straight. half the time i scrap, my page becomes symmetrical, i just can't help myself! on this layout i made a conscious effort not to be so precise. i even pulled one of the photos loose, and re-stuck it skew-er. i think i just invented a new word... i really enjoyed that, and i like the result.

love, jacki

family

The family.  We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.  ~Erma Bombeck

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.  ~Jane Howard

i am feeling all nostalgic tonight. i am planning to make some christmas gifts for a few members of my family, and to do that, I needed to go through old photos from when we were growing up. so I went through my old album.

my youngest sister, carla, lives in australia. it has been 2 years since the last time we saw her. during these last years, we did not hear from her so much, only sometimes an sms. then we convinced her to join facebook. now, almost every day, i pop in to her facebook profile, and leave her a quick message. and suddenly, she seems a little closer, and suddenly, i have been missing her so much more! she is my sister, but there is a 7 year difference. and now there is half a world difference too. i know almost nothing about her life. i do not know what her house looks like. i do not even know what her boyfriend looks like, we have never met him. i do not know what he does for a living, or, for that matter, what she is doing for a living lately.

all this is making me quite sad. family is so important, yet we seem to have so little of each other. we share all this history, all these stories, all these in-jokes. we share blonde-ish hair and blue eyes, and in the case of my family, we even share the same middle name! we all share the name aalbert, named after some great uncle on my father’s side. in times of crisis and death and illness, we all pull together, and cry together. but in the ‘good’ times, all we have is a daily message on our facebook funwalls. and aging photos in our albums.

this is what makes scrapbooking so special. as I was planning a christmas gift, I looked back on ‘long ago’. and as I was scanning those old photos, I got 10 more ideas! Digital photos are so great, we can scan them and edit them and move them into folders, and use them over and over in different projects. we can scrap pages of ‘then and now’ of one person. we can do ‘father and son’ at the same age. we can commemorate facial expressions or temper tantrums, prizegivings and birthdays. we can edit and crop and enhance and improve, until each layout celebrates those amazing and special memories. and then we can get nostalgic and sad, and we can remember that everything starts and ends with family. and we can know that no matter what, we have each other.

as I am getting ready to go to bed, I am missing carla again. but I appreciate once again those very special people, my parents, paula, andre and carla, with whom I share such a very special history. and I know that no matter how many miles separate us and how little we see each other, we all carry a little of US all inside our hearts, and in our dna, and in our memories and in our characters. and that is the biggest blessing of all.

Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family.  Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted.  ~Paul Pearshall

This is me..

It is never easy to scrap myself, even looking at pics of myself is difficult. A psychologist will probably tell me that the image that I have of myself in my mind is better than the real one, so looking at a mirror or photo forces me to face reality (pun not intended), or some psychobabble like that. Maybe there is some truth in that..

Anyway, not only did I scrap myself, I used all those AWFUL photos of myself that have been lying around all these years, the ones that survived being torn up, that is! This page was not easy to scrap, in fact it took months of packing it away, and dragging it back out again. Donna Downey is busy working on a book about scrapping those crappy photos, and reading about it on her blog made me determined to finish this page at last.

As you can see, there is some journaling on there. It is my intention to do much more journaling on my pages. When I page through scrapbooking magazines, I LOVE to read stranger's journaling, so I suppose that I should do more of that myself.

That shiny thing in the right corner of the left page, is my student card from my only year at university, in 1985!

Love,

Jacki

Journaling

So often in my shop do I hear how my clients don't like journaling. And they hate their own handwriting.

More than 5 years ago, my husband died in an aeroplane crash. Now I cherish stiffy disks (remember those?) that say 'windows 98 recovery disk', and business cards that say 'Piet 08**etc', because they are almost the only samples of his handwriting that I have. And his handwriting was really awful! At least my family will have notes and journaling in my handwriting to cherish. Think of the special people in your life that have passed on. What have you saved with their handwriting on? Do you want to do that to your loved ones? Or would you prefer they have personal notes from you?

At the convention Wilna and Donna really emphasized this. Wilna suggested that if you don't know what to write, you start with 'dear ...' and write it as a note to them. She also told us that living far away from her mom, nothing beats the joy of getting a handwritten letter (remember those too?) in the mail from her. Think of journaling as a handwritten letter to your children.

I just finished doing Wilna's page last night. The tags all have notes on them to that person. I really enjoyed that. Thank you Wilna, for creating such a special layout.

I once read somewhere that if someone looks through your album and still asks questions, then you haven't done enough journaling.

My clients are also very bad at scrapping themselves. I also battle with this. I hate to be reminded of what I look like. I am, after all, somewhat large.. Yet, if my scrapbooks are the story of my life, then surely the main character - ME, should feature sometimes. Someone once told me that when her husband plays with the kids, it's such a special occasion, that she gets out the camera and takes pics, and scraps them. One day her kids will think that he played with them all the time, and she seldom did. While it actually was the other way around.

Come on, overcome that negativity, and scrap yourself at least sometimes! With my digital camera I work on the theory that if I take 100 photos, at least one of them will come out ok. The rest I delete. And since I am the boss of the camera, I have control of what is deleted, and what stays. And what gets scrapped. So give the camera to your hubby or you kids, and let them photograph you. Or contact Annette and book a photoshoot. AND SCRAP YOURSELF!!

I am busy (have been for weeks, it's somewhat torturous) with a layout using all those crappy photos of myself through the years. Those that survived being torn up. A few days ago, Donna also showed us her bad birthday pics on her blog, and promised she was going to scrap them. You don't have to go that far, though.

I hope I have given you something to think about. Leave me a comment and tell me how you have applied this.

And now I'm getting off my soapbox.

love, Jacki